Welcome to Doki Doki Literature Club! In the cute, new, and free anime dating sim visual novel everyone's talking about, join the afterschool literature club where every day is full of fun chatter, events, and choices, and write poems to romance the girl of your dreams. Will you write the way into her heart?

WARNING: THIS THREAD MAY CONTAIN UNMARKED SPOILERS. IF YOU HAVEN'T YET, PLEASE PLAY THIS GAME BEFORE SPOILING YOURSELF. IT'S FREE AND ONLY 6 HOURS.

FAQ:Q: So it's just a weeb dating sim? What's the big deal?A: If it wasn't obvious from the game's broad content warnings and Steam tags, this is more a horror game and isn't exactly what it appears on the surface. Also, it's among the top 20 highest rated Steam games of all time with a 10/10. This game is being compared to Undertale and is one of the most emotionally riveting games I have ever played. It is absolutely brilliant and this is why it's being played by people who would never play dating sims or visual novels.

Q: How scary is it? Should I be worried?A: If you suffer from anxiety or depression, some of the content might be triggering. The official site has a list of specific triggers but bear in mind that this includes mild-moderate spoilers.

Q: Should I use a guide?A: It's universally agreed that this game is best played as blind as possible. You will never remotely need a guide even to get all routes, and it will just ruin your experience. The only important piece of advice to give is that the game isn't actually over until you've seen the credits.

I've played a little under 2 hours, which got me to just after it starts to be a horror game. The first hour was almost physically painful for me since it's going out of its way to be the most cliche dating sim ever, but there were definitely hints that it'd get better even in that part. Was really surprised that some of the poetry is actually pretty good, too - they certainly didn't need to try there. I'll probably finish the second half on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the article that convinced me to play it went right out and compared the story structure to Zero Escape. I'm trying not to let that influence my opinion, but it's hard not to let that set certain expectations. I've picked up on a few hints that make me think I know where it's going, and it'd be plenty clever on its own if I was going in blind, but now I'll be a little disappointed if there aren't three bigger twists on top of that that I could've figured out with enough detective work.

My cousin pretty much had to bribe me to play it, and for the first two hours I couldn't fathom why. Now that I've finished it, I can easily call it one of the most unique experiences I've had with video games, ever. It's metafiction genius, seriously.

Another piece of advice I'd add is to periodically check the game files (the actual ones on your computer) once the horror stuff starts happening.

Just finished it, and yeah, that comparison ruined it. It does some clever stuff, don't get me wrong, but I spent the whole game waiting for plot twists that never came. Of course, in fairness to the game, it never promised any. Guess that's what I get for making a slight exception to my usual policy of playing anything interesting completely blind. :/

I'll post something more detailed in the reviews thread later. Don't want to write it up twice or spam that thread (more than I already do), and I'm hoping to get through Finding Paradise today as well.

^Am I supposed to play it more than once? I know there's at least one other ending, but it sounded like that was more of an easter egg than mainline plot, and the one I got seemed to wrap things up. The game won't even let me restart unless I wipe the old data.

Otherwise, I think the way it handles its soft restarts is more similar to something like Pony Island, but do see how someone could compare that specific aspect to ZE, now that you mention it.

Just finished my first run, choose Sayori naturally. I knew what would happen because I was spoiled before I got the chance to play it, but it went differently then what I thought it would and still caught me off guard. I tried restoring my saves to go a slightly different route, but Monika (I presume?) deleted my saves permanently. Then I deleted Monika, didn't go as planned to say the least.